A Study and Analysis in Renewable Energy

摘要

Since the dawn of civilization mankind could have used wind power for various purposes, but according to documented history wind power has been in use since the year 5000 BC by the ancient Egyptians. The Egyptians discovered that wind could be used as a source of energy for grinding corn, pumping water and other similar applications. The wind is a free, clean, and inexhaustible source of energy. The first practical application of wind energy was witnessed in 4000 BC in the form of a single square sail on a sailing ship. As is already a well known fact, wind is produced by the uneven heating of the earth surface by the sun. Thus the concern over climate change grows and new policies are being drafted at different levels in the government to support various types of renewable energy. The government policies are driving the need to identify and construct new power plants that will utilize renewable resources to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The fossil fuel power generation plants of the past, are getting outdated and causing more harm to the environment with their emissions. The operating and maintenance cost of various renewable energies were reviewed and found that offshore wind farms were the highest, around twenty eight percent. This higher cost can be compensated by generating higher power from the higher velocity of wind at sea. The demand for electricity in the country is ever on the rise. Simultaneously, the pressure to reduce the emission of green house gases through excessive burning of fossil fuels is also on the increase. To meet these two conflicting requirements one of the possible ways out is to harness the renewable sources of energy like the wind energy in a big way. But setting up wind farms on land is also beset with problems concerning suitable land acquisition and other related issues. Hence the best alternative is to go to the sea for setting up offshore wind farms. It is a well known fact that the wind regime at sea is far superior to the wind regime on land thus making sea the ideal alternative for locating wind farms. This paper illustrates harnessing clean energy from the wind covering in a wider perspective in the past innovations, economics, case studies and maintenance strategy.